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When a long-term problem is presented as a 'crisis', our rationality goes out of the windowCredit:
Andrew Fox

When trying to make sense of endemic societal issues, for some reason we almost always end up blaming schools, don't we? And so it is, with new calls to tackle growing knife crime, that the spotlight settles once again upon the school system.

Exclusions are to blame, we hear, for growing youth violence: excluded children are one of the most likely groups to be involved in knife crime.

When a long-term problem is presented as a 'crisis', our rationality goes out of the window. In a panic, we look for the one thing we can blame, and the one perfect solution: the 'broken' system of school exclusions must be at the heart of rising violence, so fixing it will sort everything out - won't it?